Apple says no to the Droid's red glow

Don't expect the "glowing red eye" of Motorola's Droid smartphone to show up on your iPhone anytime soon. Apple has rejected an application called "iDroid," that would have save displayed the Droid's red eye on an iPhone and linked to information about the flagship Android phone.

You can imagine that Apple's app censors didn't speed too much time deliberating the fate of an iPhone app whose only purpose was to advertise its arch enemy. It is also hard to blame them, even though Apple really needs to find a sense of humor about these things.

I hope the developers at Swavv Apps didn't put too much time into this project. Maybe they did it--knowing that Apple was certain to reject iDroid--to gain publicity for their other two applications: Beer Pong and Spin the Bottle. I bet they didn't spend too much time on those timeless iPhone apps, either.

As I said, it's easy to defend Apple in this case, though sense of humor aside, TechCrunch suggests it might have been good for Apple to let iDroid through.

"Sure, the iDroid was an ad for the Droid phone. But what's the real message it would have sent? What it says is that the iPhone is a powerful marketing vehicle for anything mobile."

Alternately, it suggests that a certain number of iPhone users have a case of "Droid envy." While the Droid's glowing eye really doesn't have a place on my iPhone, I do understand its attraction for some. What the Droid has that I really want, besides Google Maps Navigation, is multitasking. That's where real "Droid envy" lies.

David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.

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